Neandertal Man—the changing picture

An overview of how this alleged ‘subhuman’ is being progressively rehabilitated,
despite the evolutionary bias resisting the trend

Neandertal Man was the name given to bones found in 1856 in Germany’s Neander
Valley (‘tal’, or ‘thal’ in old German spelling). The name
Neander was a pseudonym of the 17th-century minister Joachim Neumann,
the Greek translation of his name (‘new man’). A major PBS-TV series
on evolution1 depicted Neandertal
Man as only half human and not very intelligent, one who lived a very inferior life
compared to the alleged first humans, the Cro-Magnon people. Some scientists today
believe he was ‘lacking the language skills, foresight, creativity, and other
cognitive abilities of modern humans’.2
Neandertal Man is considered to be either a link leading to modern man or a dead
end in human evolution from the supposed ape-like ancestor.

Biblical creationists, on the other hand, believe that there were no ‘subhumans’
at any time. Neandertal fossils are all post-Flood, so these bones are believed
to represent just one more group of people which split off from other groups following
the Babel dispersion.

The evolutionary assumptions concerning Neandertal Man began early this century.
The first Neandertal was reconstructed as a ‘missing link’ by famous
paleontologist Marcellin Boule (1861–1942).3
He was called Homo neanderthalensis, implying a primitive evolutionary
link to modern man, Homo sapiens. Forty-four years later, a reanalysis
of Boule’s work showed his extreme evolutionary bias in the reconstruction
of Neandertal Man. After the reanalysis, some scientists stated that if you dressed
him up, gave him a shave and bath, and sent him into society, he would attract no
more attention than some of the subway’s other denizens (see box below). Neandertal
Man was then reclassified as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, just a particular
type of modern man.

Recreating the faces of our Neandertal cousins

From their skeletons, we know that the average Neandertal person had bony differences
from the average person alive today, including a bigger braincase. So what did they
look like?

Bones cannot tell you about things like hairiness, nor the shape of the fleshy parts,
like nose or ears. But computerized forensic science has come a long way in making
educated ‘guesses’ at a person’s appearance from the shape of
a skull. As reported in January 1996 National Geographic, researchers at
the University of Illinois used computer morphing techniques to fit pictures of
living people onto Neandertal skulls.

Unlike the artistic reconstructions of earlier times, this time nothing was imaginatively
added based on evolutionary assumptions of ‘primitivity’. The results
indicate that the bones of the skull would not preclude Neandertals from looking
like people you would not greatly comment on (apart from hair and dress style) if
they moved in next door to you today.

It is interesting that, just as with Piltdown Man, Neandertal’s uplifted status
was hailed as a ‘great moment in science’ in which errors are eventually
corrected. But the clues to Neandertal Man’s human affinity were obvious at
the time of Boule’s reconstruction, just as it should have been obvious that
Piltdown Man was a fraud.

The great pathologist Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902) claimed that the Neandertal
specimen he examined had rickets and arthritis, which may have caused some of the
skeletal features leading to the wrong reconstruction, but his opinion was overlooked.4 It took 44 years for the highly
misleading nature of the reconstructions to be revealed, indicative of the shared
bias of the evolutionary community.

Even after the Neandertal reconstruction at the Field Museum of Natural History
in Chicago was shown to be false and highly misleading, it took another 20 years
for this renowned institution to correct its display!

Although the image of Neandertal Man improved by the 1950s and 1960s, there still
is considerable controversy within evolutionary circles over his status,5 with many still preferring the ‘missing link’
concept. Although his brain size is a little larger than modern man’s, Neandertal’s
brain is said to be of ‘lesser quality.’ Some believe he had incredible
physical strength and would fight large animals at close quarters, while others
claim he was a scavenger or even a vegetarian. Evolutionists do not know where Neandertal
Man came from or where he went. One faction of evolutionists believes modern men,
Cro-Magnons, killed the Neandertals, while others believe Neandertal interbred with
Cro-Magnon Man, eventually becoming modern man. Neandertal Man disappeared about
30,000 years ago in the evolutionary timescale—a more or less ‘absolute’
date, despite evidence of younger Neandertals.6

Another difficulty for evolutionists is evidence that Neandertal Man lived at the
same time as modern man and ‘archaic Homo sapiens’, sometimes
in the same area. This creates big problems for those professing Christians who,
like Hugh Ross, generally accept secular dating methods. Since they cannot date
Adam back too far without stretching the genealogies beyond recognition, any human-type
skeletons ‘dated’ earlier than a few tens of thousands of years ago
have to be written off as pre-Adamic ‘soulless’ quasihumans. Biblical
creationists believe Neandertal Man was just a unique variant of modern man who
lived in Europe and adjacent Asia and North Africa after the Babel dispersion in
the Ice Age (the aftermath of the Flood—ref. 24).

Despite the PBS series on evolution, the status of Neandertal Man has been improving
among evolutionists during the past 10 years. The series’ failure to mention
any of the recent discoveries appears to be typical of its whole propagandistic
thrust. The discovery of a human hyoid bone (related to the larynx or voice box)
prompted many evolutionists to state that Neandertal Man had speech and language
ability equivalent to modern man.7

‘Although no one had explicitly predicted what a Neandertal hyoid would look
like, few were really surprised when it turned out to be a slightly enlarged version
of a human hyoid and nothing like an ape hyoid … . Many anthropologists came
to believe that Neandertals could have spoken any modern human language, whatever
their accent may have been.’

Although the Neandertal hyoid bone was indistinguishable from those of modern humans,
some still downplay its significance to speech ability. However, a later report,
based on further anatomical evidence, concludes that language has been around for
400,000 years of evolutionary time, including the entire Neandertal period.9

The PBS series pointed out that Neandertal burials left little evidence of ritual
as compared to those by later humans. Besides leaving me suspicious that their case
was concocted, any difference may not mean much, since there are other ways to explain
the scarcity of implements or other signs of ritual with Neandertal skeletons. Lately,
more evidence of ritual has been showing up. A Neandertal baby was found buried
in Israel with a red deer jawbone next to its hip, indicating that Neandertal Man
at least had the capability for symbolic behavior.10 A Neandertal toddler was unearthed in Syria at the
bottom of a pit 1.5 m (5 ft) deep, with a flint tool resting at about the spot where
the infant’s heart had once beaten. This discovery is considered ‘the
best evidence yet of Neandertal burial practices’.11 Furthermore, pierced animal teeth, probably worn as
pendants, and ivory rings were discovered with a Neandertal fossil in a French cave
in 1996.2,12 Moreover, it is now
known that Neandertals made their own relatively sophisticated ornaments and tools.2
This suggests ‘a high degree of acculturation’.12

At one time archaeologists did not believe Neandertals used spears, but this idea
has been given the shaft by the finding of aerodynamic wooden spears used by the
supposed ancestors of Neandertals.2 Furthermore, it has been discovered
that Neandertals crafted a variety of stone tools and deadly, stone-tipped spears,
showing an aptitude often attributed only to modern humans.2,13,14 Some scientists
had claimed that Neandertal Man was only capable of scavenging carcasses, but a
new analysis of break and cut marks on animal bones in caves indicates he butchered
the animals, which is consistent with hunting.2 John Shea, who featured
in the PBS series, states that this new information contradicts the idea that Neandertals
were markedly inferior.2

A very recent report now finds that Neandertals used stone implements in more flexible
ways than previously thought, which gave them access to a more varied diet of meat
and plants.15,16
Based on microscopic evidence of use-wear and residues left on the stone tools in
the Crimea,16 the report suggests that those who used the tools, likely
Neandertals, exploited a variety of woody and starchy plants and even hunted birds.
Residues of bird feathers were found on some of the tools.

It has recently been concluded that Neandertals lived side-by-side with modern humans
in the Middle East for 100,000 years of evolutionary time and made virtually identical
stone tools.17 Hybrids of Neandertals
and humans are known from a number of areas,8 including a recent find
of a child in Portugal.18 It is
not difficult to conclude that Neandertal Man was totally human, and that modern
humans and Neandertals likely amalgamated in Europe.

One report claimed that Neandertal Man’s DNA was quite different from modern
humans, supposedly justifying the classification of them into a different species
than modern man. But its author, the famed Svante Pääbo, claims that his
paper has been misinterpreted.19
And mitochondrial DNA retrieved from an Australian Homo sapiens, claimed
to be 62,000 years old, also differs greatly from that of modern humans.20 The team that made the DNA discovery believes this
new result will usher Neandertal Man back into the human fold. This result also
suggests that DNA studies are not very good for determining supposed evolutionary
closeness.

It has been suggested that Neandertal Man fashioned a bone flute, an obvious human
accomplishment. This deduction is strongly disputed, claiming that the holes in
a hollowed-out bear bone were punctured and gnawed by the teeth of an animal, possibly
a wolf.21 However, the two complete
and two partial holes in the picture shown are linear and very round, making
the carnivore theory suspect (available only in the magazine—see p. 11). Besides,
about 30 partial bone flutes have been found in Europe late in the Neandertal period
and younger.22

Those scientists that dispute Neandertal’s human affinity seem to forget that
he lived during the Ice Age and was able to survive the cold and harsh weather.23 Neandertal Man had to have a
human level of sophistication to survive.9,24

A new article published in the journal Nature now claims that Neandertals,
or possibly modern humans, lived in northern Russia during the Ice Age.25 It had been widely believed that no humans lived in
this region until 14,000 years ago in evolutionary time. Based on a mammoth tusk
bearing cut marks, likely made from stone tools, the earliest date of man living
in this cold territory during the Ice Age was pushed back to 40,000 years. The significance
of this is that ‘adaptation to northern climes requires high levels of technological
and social organization’,26
strongly suggesting that Neandertal Man, if he was the tool user, was fully human.

Many of these reports of Neandertal’s total humanity are disputed by some
scientists, seemingly motivated by a blind evolutionary bias. In one scene from
the similarly biased PBS series, John Shea throws a Neandertal spear with a heavy
head 23 or 24 m (80 ft), while he throws a later human spear 42 m (140 ft). This
demonstration implied that Neandertals were inferior to modern people. But earlier
in the Neandertal episode it was concluded that Neandertals were very strong: the
body builders of the Paleolithic. It therefore stands to reason that Neandertal
Man could throw his spear significantly farther than 24 m, and that the heavy, sharp
stone tip would have been very effective in hunting. The spear that was thrown 42
m had a light antler head and was thrown with the aid of a spear thrower.

Despite all the prejudice against including the Neandertals into Homo sapiens,
even many evolutionists have become impressed with the evidence for Neandertal’s
humanity, as research casts a ‘more complimentary light on the older cousins.
This emerging view depicts Neandertals as having a capacity for creative, flexible
behavior somewhat like that of modern people’.2 Thus, the evidence
increasingly supports the biblical position.

It is not claimed here that all of the Neandertal bony features
are the consequence of disease, the major cause of the variation is almost certainly
genetic, as is the variation in external features among different groups of people
today. In any case, not all Neandertals had these pathologies. Return
to text.